New Delhi: The Supreme Court has deprecated the practice of police authorities maintaining records of individuals belonging to backward communities “based solely on caste-bias, pre-conceived notions and stereotypes.”
The court said that maintaining such records in police diaries makes members of such communities invisible victims and also impedes their right to live a life with self-respect.
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice KV Viswanathan held, “The value for human dignity and life is deeply embedded in Article 21 of our Constitution. The expression ‘life’ unequivocally includes the right to live a life worthy of human honour and all that goes along with it. Self-regard, social image and an honest space for oneself in one’s surrounding society, are just as significant to a dignified life as are adequate food, clothing and shelter.”
The court has also directed all state police authorities against “making mechanical entries in History Sheet are made of innocent individuals, simply because they happen to hail from the socially, economically and educationally disadvantaged backgrounds, along with those belonging to Backward Communities, Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes. While we are not sure about the degree of their authenticity, but there are some studies available in the public domain that reveal a pattern of an unfair, prejudicial and atrocious mindset.”
The court has also said that police of states and Union Territories (UTs) must follow the ‘Delhi model’ of maintaining history sheet of criminals where no details of any minor relatives, i.e., son, daughter, siblings of the history sheeter shall be recorded anywhere in the History Sheet unless there is evidence that such minor, has or earlier had, afforded shelter to the offender.
The court order comes on a petition by AAP MLA Amanullah Khan who sought quashing of the “history sheet” opened against him by the Delhi Police and the proposal to declare him as “Bad Character”.
But when the court saw the history sheet against Amanullah Khan, they noticed some disturbing information in the history sheet, which was the inclusion of the names of school going minor children of Amanullah Khan and his wife, against whom there was apparently no adverse material whatsoever for inclusion in the history sheet.
Thereafter on prodding by the court, Delhi police amended its order on maintaining information of history sheeters and their family members.
Do not include names of people in history sheet based on stereotypes: Supreme Court
21
0
08.05.2024
New Delhi: The Supreme Court has deprecated the practice of police authorities maintaining records of individuals belonging to backward communities “based solely on caste-bias, pre-conceived notions and stereotypes.”
The court said that maintaining such records in police diaries makes members of such communities invisible victims and also impedes their right to live a life with self-respect.
A bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice KV Viswanathan held, “The value for human dignity and life is deeply embedded in Article 21 of our Constitution. The expression ‘life’ unequivocally includes the........
© News9Live
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Rami G Khouri
Mort Laitner
Rachel Marsden
Bradley Blankenship
Donald Low
Ali Fathollah-Nejad
Nikkei Editorial
Abbas Juma
Michael Kwet
